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Denny Hamlin takes the checkered flag at Bristol

August 24, 2012

Denny Hamlin led Saturday's race at Bristol for 70 laps. But he was in front when it mattered most, as he won the race. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

After each of the four races at Bristol Motor Speedway this week, the winners have used almost the same phrase to express their emotions. In so many words, Modified winner Ron Silk, Truck Series winner Timothy Peters, Nationwide winner Joey Logano and Saturday night’s Sprint Cup winner Denny Hamlin have all said, “This is Bristol, baby. This is the night race at Bristol and it doesn’t get any better than this.”

“I don’t know how else to say it,” Hamlin said after his third win this year, his first-ever at Bristol Motor Speedway and the 20th of his career, all for Joe Gibbs Racing. “I grew up watching the night race here. This is a milestone race we all want to win. They give away a great trophy and it’ll be one of my most prized possessions. This is the biggest win in my career, even bigger than the two at Richmond, which is my home track. Talk to any casual fan, and when they ask where they should go to see a race, everyone says the Bristol night race. It’s where the most eyes are on us.”

Hamlin got his long-awaited Bristol win by nudging past Carl Edwards with 38 laps remaining and driving away to a 1.103-second win in the Irwin Tools 500. He fairly easily beat the Chevys of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, the Toyota of Brian Vickers, the Ford of Marcos Ambrose, the Toyotas of Kyle Busch, Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano, and the Chevys of Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard.

Saturday night was dramatically different from the March race, which was slowed only five times for 49 laps, paltry by Bristol standards. This one was slowed 13 times for 87 laps, and 18 cars were involved in some form of mayhem. Among the drivers in spins or crashes: pole-winner Casey Mears, Bobby Labonte, Regan Smith, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Ken Schrader, Kurt Busch, David Ragan, Jeff Burton, Aric Almirola, David Gilliland, Dave Blaney, Jason Leffler and Ryan Newman.

Between the spring and summer races, track owner Bruton Smith ground down the highest-banked upper groove of his half-mile bullring. The “old” Bristol had grown too sanitary, too precise, too easy to handle. When fans stayed home in alarming numbers, Smith removed banking from the top. His idea was to squeeze more cars into the middle and bottom grooves, where he hoped they’d bang together more often.

There was indeed more wrecking – a staple at BMS and one of its most popular selling points – but the high groove quickly became the preferred groove, even with a more abrasive surface. Hamlin’s car was almost the only one that could consistently pass on the bottom instead of trying to force an opening against the wall. “For most everybody else, the only way to pass was on the outside,” he said. “I told (crew chief) Darian Grubb about 50 laps into the race that we had a winning car because we had the best car, the only one that worked on the bottom. All night long it seemed like a freight train of cars on the top. So no doubt about it, the best car won tonight because it worked on the bottom and the top.

“But you had to have at least a two car-length gap behind you before you could actually work a guy to the low side. If you got pinned down there (in the bottom groove) for a couple of laps, the guy behind you would fill the hole every time and you’d end up going backward. My only chance to beat Carl was to (get slightly ahead) and slide up in front of him. That’s the way Bristol is supposed to be – rooting and gouging.”

Hamlin was asked if Saturday night was more like the “old” Bristol, the track once known for numerous cautions and massive multi-car accidents. “It’s tough to say because tonight was so different from recent races,” he said. “There’s nothing they can do to make us run the bottom because that’s not the fastest way around. But it was the same as before: we were all running in line and waiting for the next guy to screw up to get around. That’s what we did at the old Bristol and that’s what we did tonight.”

Hamlin was among 13 drivers who swapped the lead 22 times. (In the spring, seven drivers swapped the lead 13 times). Logano led four times for 139 laps, Hamlin five times for 70, Johnson once for 52, Edwards twice for 45 (he ran out of gas while top-10 in the final laps), Martin Truex Jr. once for 44, Kahne once for 42, Greg Biffle two for 41, Mears the first 26, Kenseth twice for 25, Earnhardt Jr. once for 13 and Ambrose, Stewart and Vickers once for one lap.

Johnson, Biffle and Earnhardt Jr. officially clinched spots in the Chase for the Championship, and Kenseth clinched at least a wild card. Ironically, despite his three wins, Hamlin hasn’t officially clinched his spot. (He’s so close now it would take an almost-inconceivable set of circumstances to keep him out of the 10-driver, 12-race playoff). With races remaining at Atlanta on Sept. 2 and Richmond on Sept. 8, Kahne and Kyle Busch hold the Chase wild card spots.

Here are the results from Saturday night's NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway: